The Infested (NOTD 2)

Night of the Dead 2 will once again feature a squad of marines facing down against the infested hordes of the undead. The map will feature a slew of enemies both new and old. The infested are the primary enemy faction dealt with, and are the infested, mutated, or otherwise transformed remnants of the civilian population. They roam the map in packs and stop at nothing to kill anything that gets in their path. The infested this time around bring a number of new features to increase their intelligence, lethality, and add new and improved mechanics to the game.

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NOTD2 features a new enemy intelligence system known as the stimuli system. Rather than having infested constantly on attack command towards the player's position, they now engage in one of two states of behavior. In their normal state, infested wander the map, alone or in groups, idly patrolling their territory. However, they are attracted by the sounds of movement and gunfire. If noise creating action occurs in their vicinity (players walking, weapon's fire, explosions, infested dying, etc) their AI tells them to move and investigate. This can create a domino effect known as Horde Event where players have created sufficient stimuli to attract every nearby infested. Because of this horde event, the situation large enough to build on itself and continue attracting new infested, which continue the event. Only after enough of the horde has been killed or players flee and noise returns to "normal" levels will infested return to their idle behavior.

The infested hordes are now split into cleanly divided classes. These help for the purposes of identification and role. They range from the cannon fodder zombie class to the boss-like super heavies. Each infested type within a class works to fulfill that role, and units of a similar type can be expected to share characteristics such as relative health, damage, or speed. Each class is then in turn composed of two unit types. Base units, which are default versions, and mutations, which are special variants with different properties and abilities.

Mutations are a new feature appearing in Night of the Dead 2. Each enemy unit now includes several variants known as mutations. Mutation enemies are clearly identifiable, as they posses different models, color schemes, and other visuals. They may be larger or smaller, and alter the statistics of the base unit they are derived from. Mutation enemies fulfill the same role as their basic counterpart, but do so in a slightly different way. They may possess new skills such as charging, leaping, or cliff climbing, or they may have different statistics such as health or damage. As difficulty is increased the ratio of normal enemies to mutation enemies will increase, forcing players to become more aware of their foe, and its capabilities. Bosses will currently not feature mutations, and a similar concept is not yet in place for mechanic or human enemies.

The zombie class are the most common and least interesting class of enemy. They are weak, slow, and do not have a very strong attack. They fight with sheer numbers and serve mostly as cannon fodder. They can still be dangerous if they corner a marine or swarm an unprepared player.

The suicide class attacks by charging enemies and exploding on contact. They often deal nasty side effects in addition to raw damage. Best taken out from a safe distance, these infested are particular dangerous if allowed to ambush a barely or fought in close quarters.

The heavy class are actually medium strength infested. They lack the numbers of the suicide class or the strength of the super-heavy class. But they make up for it in being the best overall enemies, with good health, armor, and high damage. They can be lethal if not prepared for.

The support class are a relatively annoying type of infested designed to harass players and buff infesteds. They rarely slow up alone, typically tagging along with a larger horde of enemies. In combat they have more skills and abilities than most enemies and are fairly durable.

The parasite class is peculiar because they are not passively spawned like other Infested. Instead they are actively created from parasite mounds that Infestors build. Destroying these mounds ceases the spawning of new parasite enemies. In combat they have little health and a very weak attack. But they attack rapidly and excel at inflicting ailments.

The airborne class are the only flying type of infested. This makes them particularly dangerous at they cannot be exploited by terrain and can easily scale walls, cliffs, and fly over any sight obstruction. Overall they are fairly fragile with moderate attack strength, and best dealt with from afar.

The Super Heavies somewhat deviate from the standard Mutation concept, in that the “Base Unit” does not actually exist in-game and is only a basis which Mutations build upon with bonus stats and abilities. Super Heavies are functionally mini-bosses. They have tremendous durability, deal massive damage, and can buff all infested around them. They are to be dealt with extreme caution and terminated as quickly as possible.